Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A newly released study by the law firm of Dorsey and Whitney, LLP for the Urban Institute should be required reading for anyone who thinks that reform of our immigration laws and procedures is something that can be put off indefinitely.

The study, “Severing a Lifeline: The Neglect of Citizen Children in America’s Immigration Enforcement Policy”, whose principal authors are James D. Kremer, Kathleen A. Moccio and Joseph W. Hammell, focuses on the impact of the Bush-initiated wave of factory and home raids on the US citizen children of undocumented immigrants, as well as of documented immigrants subjected to deportation proceedings.

The owner of an adoption agency here in Little Rock voluntarily relinquished his license. DHS held a hearing to revoke Ed Webb's license after numerous complaints from clients about unethical business practices.

A multi-million-dollar settlement has been reached in the case of a boy from Lynnwood who nearly starved to death. Shayne Abegg, who's now 6 years old, will receive $6 million from the Department of Social and Health Services and two other parties. KING 5's Susannah Frame reports.

It's a staggering statistic. 1 in 7 couples have fertility issues. Some have no choice but to hire a surrogate mother to carry their child for them. Surrogate moms can be very pricey. Some charge 10's of thousands of dollars and that's not counting medical bills. One Valley couple says they found someone to carry their baby for free. Fox 10's Miriam Garcia has their amazing story.

An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to perform routine screening on all American teenagers for depression, a step that acknowledges that nearly two million teenagers are affected by this debilitating condition.

Montgomery police have obtained a warrant charging Renee Bowman with murder in the slayings of two adopted children whose bodies were found in her Southern Maryland freezer last year, the county's state's attorney and police said yesterday.

Orphanages are full of children who need to be adopted, usually children who are older or disabled. When an adoption agency uses their skills to place a child from an orphanage with couples who want to adopt, they are to be commended for their services.

But so often this is not the case. If adoption agencies were simply coordinating orphanages with adoptive parents, or offering an alternative to abortion, they would be fine. The trend, however, is for adoption agencies to aggressively seek newborn babies for the purpose of filling a market demand, at the expense of a birth mother's grief.

The jailing of 10- and 11-year-old foster children in Santa Clara County has led to such a frenzy of finger-pointing and hand-wringing that it's a wonder county officials aren't accidentally slapping one another in the face, "Three Stooges"-style. The only response that makes sense so far is from county Supervisor Dave Cortese: He's calling for a public hearing to determine how it happened.

Laura McIntyre will resolve concerns and complaints from foster parents and children. She will interview caseworkers on the front lines of child welfare. If something goes wrong, she will be the one to find out what caused it.

The two county governments agreed to fund the $53,000 position, the first of its kind in Florida, after a 2007 report found the relationships between foster care agencies and the community had eroded to the point that children were endangered.

St. Aemilian-Lakeside Inc. in Milwaukee has been awarded the state of Wisconsin child welfare contract for Milwaukee County that the incumbent agency, La Causa Inc., is canceling this year, the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families said Monday.

La Causa said it would cancel the $11 million contract in the wake of negative publicity surrounding the death of a 13-month-old child who died while under the care of his aunt. La Causa workers were accused of mishandling the case.

Washington lawyer Thomas Dunlap is under fire for attempting to sell a video of Ashley Biden, the 27-year-old daughter of Joe Biden, allegedly snorting lines of cocaine at a Delaware party last month.

The New York Post claims that Dunlap showed it 90 seconds of the 43-minute tape, which purportedly shows Ashley doing lines of coke with a red straw in front of witnesses and later shouting "Shut the F-- Up!" The newspaper reported that the seller wanted $2 million before dropping his price to $400,000.

TWO children have been sent to live with their father after a court ruled the mother encouraged "negative" feelings about their dad.

The two children - a girl, aged nine, and a boy, aged seven - had been struggling with "change overs" between parents, saying things such as "I don't want to go" and "I don't have to go" when their father arrived in Tasmania from Melbourne to collect them for access visits, The Australian reports.

The attitude of a Pakistani judge toward a teenage gang rape victim has caused widespread outrage, throwing the training of the country’s judicial figures into question. On March 25, 2008, additional district and sessions judge Nizar Ali Khawaja conducted the trial of four men who allegedly gang-raped 13-year-old Ms Kainat Soomro in 2007, over a three day period in Dadu district, Sindh. The girl, who was expecting an in-camera trial (one in the judge's private chambers), was asked by the judge to describe and even demonstrate her rape in detail in front of the accused, Mr Shahban Sheikh, Mr Sheikh Ehsan, Mr Roshan Aleem and Mr Kaleemullah, all influential men who have all allegedly threatened and bribed Somroo’s family to settle out of court. About a hundred spectators were also present, according to court journalists. “The room was jam-packed, people crowding at the back because everyone knew it was a rape case.” noted a reporter from TheN ews International.

With a population of 2,393,000 and rising, the nation’s prison system has become the focus of major concern for Senator Jim Webb [D-VA]. Calling the current position in which our prisons house five-times more people than DC itself, ‘a national disgrace,’ Senator Webb has proposed that a more radical cure must now be applied.

A 24-year-old man told police he was no longer allowed to have custody of the child, but said he was permitted supervised visits at the Child Protective Services office. During one of those visits on Saturday, a “bud of marijuana” fell out of the baby’s pajamas, the man told police.

Ten children under the watch of Child Protective Services in Sacramento County were killed in a 15-month period, and the board of supervisors will hear a scathing report from an independent audit on Tuesday.

State employees reacted Monday, to Gov. Linda Lingle's (R-Hawaii) plan to close the $2billion shortfall. She's pledging no on raising taxes and no layoffs, but she's asking workers to make some financial sacrifices.

Employees we talked to at the Department of Human Services' Child Protective Services say they know how serious the state's financial crisis is. So, they're willing to help out so no jobs are in jeopardy.

Madonna's attempts to adopt a second child from the southern African nation of Malawi have been delayed until Friday, according to a court official. A Malawian judge held a closed-door hearing Monday on Madonna's adoption application, but his ruling will come no sooner than the end of the week.

Montgomery police have obtained a warrant charging Renee Bowman with murder in the slayings of two adopted children whose bodies were found in her Southern Maryland freezer last year, the county's state's attorney and police said yesterday.

An explosive video being shopped to media outlets has plunged the White House and Vice President Joe Biden into a cocaine scandal, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively.----The woman on the tape clearly resembles Ashley Biden, 27, who is a social worker employed with the Delaware Department of Children, Youth and Families. She is also a board member of the Delaware YWCA organization.----'FRIEND' OF BIDEN'S DAUGHTER SHOPPING TAPE OF HER ALLEGEDLY DOING COCAINE

The first time social service workers tried to remove Connor and Tavvi from their home, it was 4:30 a.m. and there were presents under the Christmas tree. "They tried to bully the children into leaving," said Stephanie Johnston, their 24-year-old sister and guardian, "but they didn't have a court order."

The United States is one of two countries who have not ratified a treaty that is pushed as a "children's rights" treaty. Senator Barbara Boxer is said to bring back the legislation that is supported by Barack Obama.

THREE brothers, including a one-year-old baby, will be raised in separate homes with different foster parents after the couple who wanted to raise them together were dismissed as having "a sense of themselves as special people".

The distraught couple, who have had the oldest of the brothers in their care since 2002 and were desperate to take in his brothers, said their application to care for them was refused after a meeting with a NSW Department of Community Services psychologist, who was concerned that their description of themselves as being "excellent foster parents" denoted "perceptions of omnipotence and specialness".

From the start, Texas officials insisted the sex abuse investigation involving 439 children living in a polygamist community didn’t present any unique challenges.----Raid again? Texas CPS defends '08 actions

If another call came in summoning Child Protective Services to the gates of the YFZ Ranch, the agency wouldn't hesitate to respond.

"We certainly would take advantage of our vast experience in this particular case if we were to get another report," said CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins. "There's no way to predict how exactly we would react."

Thousands of children are detained each year and placed in foster care without parental reunification. The percentages of children placed has soared, but there has been a significant decline in good quality foster family homes. We'll explore the facts, with hopes of finding solutions from the perspective of the caregiver and biological parent(s), whom are often ignored.

Things were different in the Luzerne County juvenile courtroom, and everyone knew it. Proceedings on average took less than two minutes. Detention center workers were told in advance how many juveniles to expect at the end of each day — even before hearings to determine their innocence or guilt. Lawyers told families not to bother hiring them. They would not be allowed to speak anyway.

People who have molested children for years typically get away with it for so long because the victims are not inclined to tell others, said Dale Bespalec, a psychologist for 30 years who has specialized in sex crimes against children.

Note: Manipulation, threats help Child Protective Workers hide secrets too. Interesting. I knew there was a direct connection between babystealers and the lowest form of human scum on the planet.

Adoptive and foster mothers will receive a special honor at the sixth annual Mother's Day Tea at the JW Marriott resort in Summerlin.

Children of adoptive or foster mothers are invited to nominate their mothers for the My Special Mom contest for a chance to win $1,000 prize packages. The five winners will be announced at the May 9 Hats off to Child Focus tea. Each prize package includes a laptop computer.

Following complaints among students, the 8-year-old was called for a counseling session. That was when her teachers came to know that she was a victim of physical abuse by her foster mother for four years.

Two women involved in a bitter foster care dispute over a 4-year-old girl have decided it's time to put aside their anger and work together to give the child stability.

At a hearing Monday, Children's Court Judge Mel Flanagan denied the former foster mother's attempt to have the girl returned to her home. The child had lived with the foster mother from shortly after birth until January, when she was returned to her mother.

Note: I'd personally tell that foster mother to go fuck herself, because she's probably faking it and will be looking for any reason to report the real mother to get the kid back. But that's just me.

This is, apparently another of those cases where the foster parent tries like hell to interfere with reunification.

An independent investigation of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services that is critical of the agency's leadership and handling of children's cases has been made public in advance of Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

A Fayette County judge erred by assuming a 15-month-old girl would be better off being adopted by a married couple, the lawyer for the lesbian couple who has cared for the child for most of her life told the state Supreme Court justices Wednesday.

Anger over the jailing of 10- and 11-year-old foster children in the Santa Clara County juvenile hall intensified Friday, prompting one county supervisor to call for public hearings as soon as next month into the virtually unprecedented detention.

A prison work crew baby-sat a 2½-year-old boy who was spotted Friday run-ning along the center lines of a rural Maryland highway, with trucks loaded with gravel rumbling by, police and correctional officials said.

I wanted to add that covering each others asses is a common practice in the Child Protective Industry as well. Workers and their supervisors will lie for each other, and even go as far as making records disappear so that there is nothing on paper when you try to go after them for it. If one does something unethical or illegal, the others will simply sweep it under the rug. If you try to do anything about it, they will retaliate, drain your emotions and resources.

It’s been almost two years since the state Department of Children and Family Services agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged DCF ignored complaints that a retarded Immokalee girl was being raped by her foster father until the 15-year-old gave birth to a child.

A 41/2-year-old girl at the center of a highly publicized foster care dispute will remain with her parents for the time being, but will have supervised visits with her foster mother, a Milwaukee Children's Court judge ordered Thursday.

Note: An older story, but a good one. Kind of like reading Legally Kidnapped in a mirror.

Sacramento County Child Protective Services needs to make widespread changes and until problems are corrected, the lives of children will remain at risk, according to an independent audit report released Thursday.

A United Nations human rights treaty that could prohibit children from being spanked or homeschooled, ban youngsters from facing the death penalty and forbid parents from deciding their families' religion is on America's doorstep, a legal expertwarns.

Tenesia Brown, a former foster mother, was indicted by a grand jury today on a charge of first-degree murder.

Brown was the foster mother to 3-year-old Lazon Gulley, taken from his biological mother while she battled drug problems. The boy in 2006 suffered suffered severe brain injuries that investigators said were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

The youngest child ever to be locked up in Santa Clara County spent five days in juvenile hall late last month, the Mercury News has learned, an unprecedented detention of a 10-year-old that has top officials scrambling to correct a case they describe as deeply disturbing.

Despite all the talk in recent years on television about open adoptions and being grateful to mothers for the beautiful gift of life-- in reality not much has changed. Open adoption agreements are completely unenforceable legally thanks to laws that were cleverly crafted by adoption attorneys. Parents that give up their children are still seen as irresponsible and the children are still viewed as "lucky that someone wanted them," and treated as outcasts by adoptive parents that see themselves as being from a better gene pool than the child. The ultimate point here is that if you are considering giving up your child for adoption you should know that like abortion, adoption is not an easy remedy for the situation of an unplanned pregnancy. There is no easy remedy for that situation. Overwhelmingly most people that are able to care for their child and don't end up regretting it forever--particularly 10 years later when they've matured and end up being more responsible than the people they gave the kid to. If you are an out of control drug addict, alcoholic, or mental patient and you feel that you cannot recover and be of service to the child, and or you are a danger to the child in any way-- you should do the responsible thing and ask for help. That can include asking family, friends, and even going with an adoption. However, if you are really just looking for an easier way out be forwarned:

Just like with abortion many people have turned to adoption for an easy way out, and unfortunately: have found nothing about it easy, and have indeed regretted it for the rest of their lives. So have their children.

Generally no one on earth is more protective of a child than his biological parent. Realistically, we all know that the world is full of horrible people, it would be foolish to think that some of them don't end up as adoptive parents. Think long and hard before you give up any and all ability to protect your own child from the horrors of the world.

We say this not to shame anyone, but because we wish this warning had been given to us.

Life with Adoption as told by those who lived it.. the Mothers of adoption loss speak out. Spanning over a 40 year period, we see that the more adoption has appeared to change the more it has stayed the same - still separating babies from capable, loving mothers.. and causing much destruction in it's wake. An Origins-USA.org production.

It's the last thing any kid ever wants to go through, but doesn't know it. No, it's not getting bullied on the playground. It's not getting the wrong toy for Christmas. And no, it doesn't have anything to do with sibling rivalry.

Coauthors of the new book “Child Protection: Using Research to Improve Policy and Practice” talk about research in the first nationally representative data sample of children in the child welfare system. Results indicate the most effective ways to help both children and parents in the system.

A judge said he was disgusted by a Mount Vernon man who raped his two foster children last year, and sentenced him to eight years in state prison today under a plea deal that spared the girls from a trial.

For the first time, we are hearing from the Virginia Department of Social Services, which has found itself at the center of a maelstrom after two kids from Oregon were snatched and returned to Virginia, where they they had allegedly escaped abuse.

The Florida Department of Children & Families says it did nothing to contribute to the March 13 death of Zachary Johnson, a Lakeland toddler shaken and dropped while in the temporary care of his aunt and uncle.

A new report shows that more children in families said to be known to the New York City child-welfare system died in 2008 than in any of the previous 20 years. There were 49 fatalities, according to Child Welfare Watch, a policy journal, including 14 homicides; the other children died in accidents or of natural causes, and, in some cases, the cause was not determined.

Two Oswego County legislators today agreed to accept resignation of Social Services Commissioner Frances Lanigan over her department's dealings with the family of Erin Maxwell in the years before the 11-year-old died.

Lanigan said she never has offered to quit and does not plan to step down.

Two Oswego County legislators have called for the removal of Social Services Commissioner Frances Lanigan.

And other county lawmakers are calling for the state attorney general to investigate the Department of Social Services' dealings with the family of Erin Maxwell in the years before the 11-year-old died.

Immigrant advocates are calling on Florida child welfare administrators to repudiate the actions of a private Naples foster care agency they say snatched an infant and toddler from their mother and grandparents -- and then turned the family in to immigration agents.

Sacramento County officials have revised who reviews criminal background checks for job applicants at Child Protective Services, removing the authority from top CPS managers and handing it to a county executive who oversees the agency.----Background checking at Sacramento County CPS

Madonna's string of controversial lovers since her divorce from hubby Guy Ritchie may make it difficult for the pop diva to adopt a second child from Malawi. Madonna is in the process of adopting 3-year-old Mercy James, but officials from Malawi's Ministry of Women and Child Welfare Development recently told the NY Daily News that her "relationships may negatively affect the adoption of Mercy."

On Wednesday's Today show, Gloria Allred -- an attorney for Angels in Waiting, which had provided a free nanny service to Nadya Suleman -- lashed at the octuplet mother, claiming she only cares about her babies "when the cameras are rolling."

I need some advice, my 5 year old went to school and told a lie,the principal said she called CPS because she is mandated to do so the police came to our home and found no wrong doing, but the Social worker says that she needs more background information and she can come to our home at any time any day, and she is allowed to go to the school and speak to my child w/o a parent being there(she already did)she kept asking me questions about my husband that I would not answer because I feel that it is not my place to and all this is over a pencil pricking my sons hand while him and his dad were roughhousing on the floor, i have this feeling that we will be railroaded it has already spread through the school and our neighborhood,CPS workers seem to let the true abusers get away with it and the good parents go through hell for no reason. does anyone have any insight on how I should handle this. I would appreciate any input.

Thank You----

Unfortunately, it's kind of a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. On the one hand, a child protective investigation is a very frightening experience for any parent so there might be the inclination to refuse to submit. On the other hand, refusal to submit could lead to instant removal if the worker thinks that you're trying to hide something. That said, approximately 70% of child abuse/neglect investigations are closed as unsubstantiated.

Unfortunately accidents do happen. CPS has often lost sight of that. ----

I also shared this question with another Family Rights Advocate. (no names or anything) Here's what she has to say.

It seems you have been indoctrinated into the world of Legally Kidnapped. Your reach for information is what is considered by Child Protective Services as level one for grounds of removal because you fail to comply with what they wish.

Here are some basic tips for what seems to become a significant era in your life. Document everything. I cannot stress the importance of dates, times, places, names, and events. Start a file cabinet. You will be maintaining files for any and all contact you have with CPS. Find out who the Director and the Supervisor of the CPS worker is and do not feel limited in contacting them to file a formal written grievance about the questionable activities of the worker and your discomfort with her professional deportment. When you send this letter, keep copies to be filed and carbon copy at the ending of the letter to other individuals such as your state representative and you U.S. Congressperson.

At no time shall you loose your cool. Generate a list of everyone you know who will support you. This list will include your religious leaders, teachers and principals, store owners, apartment managers, etc. Then, you will be getting to know your state government, elected and appointed officials, including civil servants. Construct a list of their mailing addresses, emails, phone numbers. Within your state human services department, you will need to know the Director, the policy makers, the ombudsman, licensing, and complaints division. Move next onto your state attorney general office. Find out the consumer complaint division. Collect information on your local prosecutor and the attorney grievance commission. You will need to prepare to file complaints to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Justice Fraud Division. Become quite liberal in your communications with the federal entities. Send letters to the President.

If you do not get swift response with your letter requesting a newly assigned CPS worker to close out the investigation, start writing letters to the aforementioned entities and make sure everyone gets a copy for each letter you send. This will become mass mailing.

In essence, your life has now become public so enjoy the limelight. What you are about to experience is what has been sequestered from the public purview since the funding streams began to poor in under CAPTA. There is no transparency and there is no accountability. Simply put, CPS can do whatever they want and nobody will ever know…until now. Hold them to the same standards they hold you. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspapers. Find a reporter to do a story on you. Contact you television station. Start a blog. Run for political office. You have been chosen. Be honored. Expose.

Blanche

----

For more information on what you should know when dealing with CPS workers...

Angels in Waiting USA have made three complaints to Child Protective Services about Nadya Suleman.

On Dr. Phil, airing Wednesday and Thursday this week, Suleman, attorney Gloria Allred and representatives from AIW USA explain why the deal between the non-profit and the mother of the octuplets fell through.

More than a month after declaring a moratorium on billing parents and guardians of youths held in detention, Los Angeles County's top probation official backpedaled Tuesday, saying his department is still collecting on thousands of bills even as it reassesses its billing practices.

A convicted burglar in Riverside County was transferred to a San Bernardino County jail Monday to answer charges he robbed and killed a Barstow woman last year before setting her home on fire, records show.

Following the release of undercover videos showing Arizona Planned Parenthood clinics disregarding laws that mandate the reporting of sexual abuse, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office has reportedly opened an investigation into local branches of the nation’s largest abortion provider.

When Dr. Phil mediated an agreement between the group Angels in Waiting USA and the mother of octuplets, Nadya Suleman, his intent was to arrange for qualified care in a transparent environment for the children so that they could be released from the hospital to their biological mother. It seemed like the best solution in a difficult situation. Three weeks later, the agreement has been terminated, and both sides in the disagreement will speak out to explain what went wrong, on DR. PHIL, Wednesday, March 25 and Thursday, March 26. (Check your local listings).

The 2008 progress report the Milwaukee Bureau of Child Welfare presents to the child welfare community Tuesday afternoon is critical in understanding how the bureau is performing and in setting goals for the coming years.

It is also, child advocates say, confusing if not downright misleading.

Although the Bureau of Milwaukeee Child Welfare (BMCW) continues to make some progress in implementing broad reforms required under a court order secured by Children’s Rights, a new report evaluating BMCW’s progress shows that the agency is still plagued by serious problems that must be addressed in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the more than 2,600 children currently in its custody.

In the past, I've written about studies that criticize child protective agencies as being too ready to take children away from parents and place them in foster care or group homes. A growing number of studies and commentators point out the fact that the federal government gives states financial incentives to place childrenin foster care. That's the per diem system and it encourages family break-up.

Adoption disruptions, it's a topic many don't want to talk about - and even fewer adoption agencies want to report. A disruptions means a failed adoption and a child ended back up in the foster care system.----Failed Adoption Reports May Be Required

A State House Committee has unanimously passed a bill that would require DHS to report failed adoptions. When children are adopted, they take the adoptive parents' name. So if the adoption fails and the child goes back into the system, they have a different name and tracking changes. Amber Given is program director for Peppers Ranch, the home for troubled boys near Guthrie. Given says better reporting and tracking will help her learn why adoptions fail, so the adoption system itself can be improved. State senators had already passed the bill.

The controversy surrounding Child Protection Services usually falls into two camps. On one side, parents and privacy advocates trade horror stories of CPS workers following up unfounded reports, refusing to close cases, and tearing apart families. On the other side, communities assailed by the horror of an abuse case deride Child Services for not doing enough to protect the children.

Global News: March 23, 2009 The Plight of Baby Penelope... Families of children with disability continue to be plagued by inhumane choice: To access Government supports and services parents must reliquish guardianship.

An ON family is faced with heart-breaking 'choice' - they have been asked to relinquish guardianship of their child with severe developmental disability in effort to obtain services & funding. This is an archaic and inhuman practice that continues to plague loving families. The scenario is not limited to one Province, nor Country, but is arising globally. We must take a stance against injustice and promote the importance of cementing family relationships.

When we learned the terrible truth about Harold Shipman murdering his patients, I suspect most of us didn’t think our own doctor was a potential mass murderer. But when a social worker is thought to have missed something when investigating a child protection allegation, the impression given by some of the media is that all social workers are incompetent.

Note: Well, perhaps if they weren't giving the media so much to work with...

Two women accused of trafficking children in Egypt say they were trying to provide three orphans with better lives.

Suzanne Hagelof, Iris Botros and their husbands have been charged along with two doctors and a nun in an alleged conspiracy to adopt children and smuggle them out of Egypt, where adoption is illegal, CNN reported Tuesday.

LA HABRA The octuplets' mother fired the nurses who offered to give free care to her children on the “Dr. Phil” show, just five days after the first babies came home, the mother's attorney said Monday.----“I think it's more of an issue with trust between the mother and those taking care of her kids,” Czech said. “If you can imagine being monitored by somebody (that) every little mistake you make may get you reported to CPS.”

Too often youths from “undesirable” backgrounds are cast-offs viewed as never having aspirations of greatness. Their thoughts, desires, talents, and worth are overlooked. Unaware of circumstances contributing to these youths' fate, adults often prejudge and dismiss them. However, if adults were to engage rather than prejudge, they would discover the youth who acts violently for instance, was consistently abused by his or her parents until placed in foster care, where he or she never found a permanent, loving home, eventually “aging out” of a system promising to restore his or her life. Nonetheless, one DC organization, which acts on behalf of and along with DC youths, ensures youths within the District child welfare system have a fighting chance of finding a permanent home. Those unfortunate to find a permanent home and face “aging out” of the foster care system, are prepared for an independent life as an adult.

State child welfare workers at least twice recommended 3-year-old Ryan Weeks and his siblings be permanently removed from their mother’s home because of alleged abuse.----Even in DHS custody, at one point Ryan and his older brother were moved from one foster home after DHS officials found the foster mother had a long criminal history, the most current being for forgery and bogus checks. She also had not completed her foster parent training and was having behavioral issues with her own child.

A homeschooling mother whose daughter was removed from their home following a mistaken truancy report was jailed for contempt Friday after refusing to say where the 14-year-old has been since fleeing state custody in October.

Since a 15-month-old boy from a foster home in southern Alberta was hospitalized earlier this month, questions have been raised regarding the conditions foster children face. RCMP are investigating the circumstances that led to the injury; no comments have been made regarding criminal charges. The foster program in Alberta did not receive much attention before this incident and the state in which it is run is certainly in need of review.

Parents of disabled kids have a tough time deciding whether to give up their child for custody-for-care or not.----But in order to get round-the-clock supervision for her daughter in a specialized group home, Gavrel and her husband, Adrian McKeague, discovered they must pay out of pocket — from $90 a day to as much as $450 for a group home — or else legally abandon her to the Children's Aid Society and make her a ward of the state.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Ok, this came to me in my email. I love the way this was worded.----"As I hi-lighted in red, the truth in that simple statement by the writer of the article, is frightening in clarity!"

The Edmonton Sun reports that a child in foster care was suspected to have inflicted head injuries, and the prognosis is not good.

The story includes on an exchange of views in the provincial legislature about the safety of the province's foster care program. It's probably not a good sign that the person in charge seems to consider this as a matter of routine: "Whenever we have a serious incident like this we always do a special case review...”

A “pattern of misconduct” plagues the Colville office of the Department of Social and Health Services and has resulted in the wrongful removal of foster children, in one instance described in a court ruling as a “draconian solution” to a financial dispute, according to the county prosecutor.

One phone call can ruin a reputation or even a thriving child-care business, under a controversial practice of the Department of Children and Family Services. This one phone call to the DCFS child-abuse hotline may be enough for the agency to file an "indicated" report against a child-care provider, which can have the same effect as convicting the accused of neglect or abuse without any hearings, according to lawyer Diane Redleaf.

In Kentucky, a state social worker was fired after being accused of driving a child while under the influence of drugs.

A social worker in Montana was fined and sent to jail for buying cocaine from one of her clients.

And in Sacramento, a Child Protective Services office worker assigned to the Family Reunification program was arrested for allegedly selling drugs in a liquor store parking lot minutes from her office.

Budget cuts for services such as behavioral health care, family intervention and drug treatment will wind up adding millions more to the state deficit in a matter of months, according to advocates for at-risk adults and children. Emily Jenkins, president and CEO of the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers, says the state has reduced outpatient mental health services for uninsured working Arizonans.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

In an effort to make Legally Kidnapped even better, I have added another major addition to the ever growing LK Empire.

Here's what happened. About a week ago, I got an email from a reader suggesting that I find a way to make Legally Kidnapped more searchable by area. This was a great suggestion, but easier said than done. Unfortunately, I can't find that email now, but I thank the person anyway.

Well, it took a while, but today I figured it out.

I'm about to reveal to you the All New Legally Kidnapped Search Engine. Basically it is simply a web page where you can search Legally Kidnapped for news stories, articles, etc by State, Province, Country or Keyword. It's not pretty, but it is fully functional.

Now, Although I did pretty good based on general searches, and blogger did let me add the labels to several posts at once, this is really a tool for the future. I am going towards my 5000th post, so getting everything will be impossible. (sigh) So not everything that is on Legally Kidnapped will come up, however, I promise you all, that from now on I will add the State, Province, or Country to the labels for the future news stories. And if there is anything that important that you think it should come up in a search of your state but doesn't, then send me the link to the post and I'll add the tag so that it does.

Lee County Sheriff's deputies found Jason Pinkerton, 31, of Fort Myers shortly before midnight at the corner of Trellis and Oriole roads, according to spokesman John Sheehan. He was sitting in the front seat of his car with multiple stab wounds. As they applied first aid, Pinkerton told deputies his stepson Justin Tetreault, 16, had stabbed him.

Anyone receiving the services of a registered social worker is entitled to be treated in a fair and ethical manner. All registered social workers are expected to practice competently and professionally. The vast majority of social workers are ethical and skilled practitioners who meet these obligations.

Occasionally situations arise that result in a complaint against a social worker. The purpose of this document is to provide both registered social workers and members of the public with information on what constitutes a complaint, how to file a complaint, and what happens when a complaint is received.

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